Camming or wedging devices are often used by climbers to create anchors or otherwise support climbing aids in crevices or small openings in a rock, for example. Such camming devices are well known in the field and are commonly used. Typically they include a handle and one or more pivotable cams which are biased to an extended or outward position by springs. A release rod is manually movable axially with respect to the handle so as to move the cams from their extended position to a retracted position. A camming device of this type is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,149, incor-porated herein by reference. Other climbing aids, chocks, pitons, etc. are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,184,657; 4,572,464; 4,715,568; and 4,834,327.
Sometimes a camming device becomes wedged in a crevice so deeply that it is difficult or impossible for a climber to reach the device or to manipulate the release rod to allow the device to be extracted from the crevice. Consequently, a camming device may have to be abandoned in the crevice when it cannot be removed.
Because a camming device of this type is fairly expensive, it can be costly to simply abandon it in the crevice. Also, abandoning a camming device limits a climber's later activities where such device may be needed.
Although U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,026 describes a one-piece tool for removing rock climbing tools, such tool is not adapted to simple and effective removal of camming devices. U.S. Pat. No. 2,713,278 describes an automobile forcible entry tool but it would not be suitable for removing lodged camming devices from rocks or other crevices.
There has not heretofore been described an exterior tool for manually extracting a climber's camming device from a crevice which has the advantages and unique features as provided by the tool of the present invention.